Why Scott Eastwood Is An Excellent Choice For Christian Grey

Yesterday, in an e-mail conversation between your blogger and VF.com editor Sarah Ball discussing Britney Spears’ endorsement of James Franco for the now-available role of Christian Grey, Sarah declared, “Team Eastwood!” Your blogger had not previously considered the oft-shirtless Son of Clint for the role of the bondage-loving billionaire, but, once Sarah had floated the idea into the Gmail atmosphere, it became clear: he would be as close as it gets to a perfect fit for the part (for reasons we’ll enumerate in a second).

So imagine our surprise when along came an item today—as if willed into existence by our caps-locked conjecturing—that the 27-year-old actor “has been approached for the role.” JustJared says he is “one of five actors being considered.”

So, why do we think Scotty has what it takes? (Disclaimer: we have never seen Scott act in anything, and subsequent theorizing is based solely on one Town & Country spread, and his Twitter feed.)

He has a lot in common with potential co-star Dakota Johnson. They both have famous actor parents (Dakota’s the daughter of Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith). And . . . that’s the only commonality we can come up with; but it’s a big one, right? They probably have stories about waiting backstage at Jay Leno, or learning the word “paparazzi” before the word “chair,” or such, which they can gab about between takes.

He has nothing to lose. Unlike previously cast Charlie Hunnam, or pretty much any actor whose name you’ve heard before, Scott Eastwood doesn’t have any sort of reputation to uphold or dignity to lose. No one knows who he is! Clint surely won’t care, either, as he’s used to his family indulging in arguably embarrassing exploits.

He’s kind of shameless. His social media feeds (on which he often uses a self-created #EastwoodLivin hashtag) indicate he’s a goofball who’s pretty into himself (see: the Instagram pic accompanying this post). He tweeted about the 50 Shades rumors with the hashtag “hype”; he wants to be famous real bad. There have been a bevy of semi-unknowns whose names have floated around since Hunnam dropped out; at least we know Scott, if cast, would keep things interesting, and consistently tweet selfies from set.